Shoe for tracklaying vehicles



April 21, 1925. 1,534,254

l. H. ATHEY SHOE FOR,TRACKLAYING VEHICLES Filed Oct. 21; 1922 Patented Apr. 21, 1925.

UNITED STATES' ISAAC E. ATHEY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO ATHEY TRUSS WHEELCO., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

snron non rnacnravrne micras.

Application led october 21, 1922. Serial No. 595,9D5.

ToaZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ISAAC H. ATHEY, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Shoes for rliracklaying Vehicles, of which the. following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements in Shoes for track-laying vehicles. and is particularly concerned with, though not limited to, improvements in shoes for that type of vehicle employing a trussed chain or track.

- The principal objects of my invention are to provide a shoe for the purpose described, in which the various parts thereof are so arranged relatively to each other as to produce a construction of minimum weight and maximum strengthl A further object of my invention is to provide a shoe such as described which can be readily manufactured by the .casting process.

Other objects of my invention will appear as this description progresses, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure lis a side elevation of a portion of a trussed track or chain formed of links embodying mv invention;

Figure 2 is an end elevation of a link embodying my invention, certain portions thereof being broken away;

Figure 3 is a transverse section taken on line 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a horizontal section taken on line 4-4 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is an enlarged detail view yof the part shown in section inFigure 2; and

Figure 6 is a. side elevation of one of the closures for sealing the ends of the bores which receive the pintles that pivotally connect adjacent shoes.

Throughout the several views, similar reference characters will be used for referring to similar parts, and the sections are taken looking in the direction of the small arrows.

. Referring for the present to Figures 2, 3

and 4, my improved shoe comprises an integral casting having the inner plate 5 and the outer or treadplate 6 forming a tread memf Interconnecting the inner and treadv ber.

plates and projecting therefrom at one side of the shoe is a bearing lug 7. A pair of bearing lugs 8 interconnect and project from the inner and tread plates at the opposite side of the shoe, these lugs being arranged in spaced relation for the purpose of receiving-the bearing lug 7 of the next adjacent shoe and being pivotally connected thereto by means of a suitable hinge pin or pintle 9 (see Fig. l). Openings 10, extending through one side of the lugs 8, are provided for receiving pins x11 (see Fig. 2), which bear against the ends of the pintle` 9 for holding the same in place.

From an inspection of Figures 2 and 5, it willbe noted that. I make the pintles 9 somewhat shorter than the bearing bores in which they are located, and that-the ends of the bearing bores are enlarged or counter-bored as shown at a in Figure 5. Toprevent the ingress of sand and -dirt between the outer ends of the pintle and the bearings for it, I insert bottom iirst a cup-shaped end closure b, which has oppositely disposed notches c formed in the flange thereof. I then insert a pin 1 1 through the opening 10 formed in one `side of the bearing lug, this pin passing through the aligned notches c in the cup and into an opening al formed in, but not extending entirely through, the opposite vside of the bearing lug. Originally the pin 11 is somewhat longer than the distance from the bottom of the opening d to the outside of the opposite side of thebearing lug. The projecting end of the pin-is then given one Aor more heavy blows which expand the ends ofthe pin in the openings. To still further insure against the loss of the pin 11, I insert a punch in the outer end of the bearing bore, place it against the-pin and give it a heavy blow, which causes the intermediate portions of the pin to be offset relatively to the ends thereof, as shown in Figure 5.

By the construction referred to above, I not only provide means forpreventing sand and dirt,A from working` in between the Walls of the bore and the pintle, but I also provide means for preventing the end of the pintle from wearing the pins 11.

The lugs 7 and 8 serve to hold the inner plate and tread plate in spaced relation and lie between the planes of thesetwo plates, as clearly shown in Figure 3. The remaining margins or edges of the plates 5 and,6

are held in spaced relation by means of the end walls 12 and the side walls 13. The transversely-extending fillets or webs 14 reinforce the central part of the tread plate 6. A pair of truss arms 15 are secured,- that is, formed integrally with the inner plate -and span the connections between this inner plate and the bearing lug 7 so as to form reinforcements for thes` connections. For this purpose and also for the purpose of securing maximum strength with minimum weight, these truss arms are made L-shaped in cross section and one flange 15 thereof extends transversely of the shoe. A similar pair of truss arms 16 are connected with the opposite side of the inner plate 5 and are so arranged as to reinforce the connections or joints between the bearing lugs 8 and the inner plate 5.

The inner or free ends of the truss arms 15 and 16 converge toward each other so that each truss arm 15 merges at its inner or free end with the end of the adjacent truss arm 16. The inner merging ends of the two sets Tof truss arms are each provided with a bearing 17 for receiving the pins 18 (see Fig. 1) of the truss chain 19. The outer ends of the merging truss arms are also connected b means of the brace 20, 'which is formed integrally therewith.

The particular construction of the truss chain 19 forms no part of my present invention, but a full description thereof may be found in my United States Patent No. 1,458,962, granted June 19, 1923.

By reference to Figures 3 and 4, it will be noted that the central portion of the inner late is cut away as shown at 21. This is one for the purpose of decreasing the wei ht of the shoe and also to permit the' rea removal of the cores from the hollow portions of the shoe after it has been cast.

Secured to the outer side of each of the truss arms 16 and the adjacent portion of the inner plate 5 is a. shoe aligning plate 22. The function of this plate is to provide means for automatically aligning the shoes with the inner side of the load supporting wheel 24. In the preferred embodiment of my invention, one ofthese wheels will roll upon each end of the inner plate 5, as shown in Figure 2.

From the above description, it will be apparent that I have provided a shoe in which the parts are so arranged withrelation to each other as to provide a maximum amount of strength with minimum weight. It will also be noted that the parts are arranged so as to expedite the casting and machining thereof.

While I have described the details of construction of the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that my invention is not limited to these details, but is capable of other adaptations and modications within the scope of the appended claims.

` Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A vehicle track-side comprising an inner plate4 and a ti'ead plate arranged in spared relation, a bearing lug interconnecting and reenforcing the plates and serving as an element for the attachment of another shoe, and a truss arm projecting from the inner plate and bridging the connection between the inner plate and the bearing lug to reenforce and strengthen the same.

2. A unitary track-shoe comprisin a tread member, a bearing lug projecting rom the tread member to serve as an interconnecting element with another shoe, and a truss arm bridging the connection between the tread member and the bearing lug, the tread member, bearing lug and truss arm being integrally formed.

3. A unitary track-shoe comprising a tread member having projecting bearing lugs which serve in connecting the shoe with other shoes, a truss structure bridging and reenforcing the connections between the tread member and the bearing lugs and adapted to co-operate with the truss structures of adjacent shoes to hold the track rigid under load, and a shoe-aligning plate brid ed to the truss structure; the tread mem r, bearing lugs, truss structure and shoe-ali ning plate being integrally formed. 4. A exible track for a vehicle, comprising a plurality of shoes, the adjacent sides of which are provided with overlapping bearing lugs, said lugs having aligned openings formed therethrough forming a bearin bore, a pintle in each bore, said pintle being shorter than said bore, and means for closing each end of said bore comprising a cup-shaped closure inserted bottom first in said end, the flanges of said cup having oppositely disposed notches cut therethrough and a pin extending through the one wall of said bore and said notches for holding said cap in place, the central portion of said in being oiiset from the end portions thereof).

5. A flexible track for a vehicle, comprismg a plurality of shoes, the adjacent sides of which are rovided with overlapping bearing lugs, said lugs having aligned openings formed therethrough formin a bearing bore, a pintle in each bore, said pintle being shorter than said bore, and means for closing each end of said bore comprising a cupshaped closure inserted bottom first in said end, and a pin extending through the one wall of said bore for holding said cap in place, the central rtion of said pin being oil-set from the en portions thereof.

6. A flexible track for vehicles comprismg a plurality of shoes the adjacent sides of which are provided with overlap ing bearing lugs, each set of overlapping ugs shorter than its bore,

vhaving aligned openings to form a bearing bore, a pintle located in the bore to hold the lugs together and being shorter than the bore, a cup-shaped closure inserted bottom first in the bore to close an end thereof, and a pin extending into one of thc bearing lugs and bearing against the closure to hold the closure and pintle in place within the bore.

7. A flexible track for vehicles comprising a series of track shoes each of which has a transverse hole adjacent opposite sides, the holes of adjacent shoes aligning to form a bearing bore, a pintle in each bearing bore to hinge adjacent shoes together, each pintle being shorter than its bore, a flanged closure for an end of each bore, and a pin passing through a flange of each closure and into a shoe to hold the closure and pintle in place.

8. A flexible track Jfor vehicles comprising a series of track shoes each of which has a transverse hole adjacent opposite sides, the holes of adjacent shoe aligning to form a bearing bore, a pintle for each bore to hinge adjacent shoes together, each pintle being a pin extending across each bore to hold a pintle in place, and a closure insertable in each bore between a pintle and pin for closing the bore and protectinf the pin from abrasion 9. shoe for use in the construction of an endless track adapted to form parallel treads for load supporting Wheels and comprising in a single casting, a tread member having a wheel supporting surface adjacent each end thereof, bearing lugs projecting from opposite sides of the tread member to serve as attaching elements for other shoes, and truss arms projecting inwardly from the tread member for co-operative connection with the truss arms of adjacent shoes to hold the track rigid under load and serving connections between the tread member and its bear-ing lugs.

In Witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 18th day of October, 1922.

ISAAC H. ATHEY.

Witnesses:

DAGMAR PETERSON, j EMILE J. BOURGEOIS.

by the pintle.

to reinforce the 

